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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Sound Therapy

Anytime I talk to people about sound therapy, I'm amazed at the amount of people who haven't heard about it! So, of course I would like to share!What is sound therapy?It is basically using music as therapy. Research has shown that using music (at certain wavelengths and types of music) helps the body, mind and soul to relax and feel calm.Many people use sound therapy if you're going for a massage, doing yoga or doing meditation.

http://www.bestofyoutoday.com/sites/default/files/kids-meditation.jpg

I used it in my Kindergarten classroom all year long and called it meditation. It allowed the students to calm down and relax for a few minutes (mind you, they couldn't sit still for more than 5 minutes meditating as per to their normal development). When I was doing my undergrad, I remember reading about sound therapy. Sound therapy isn't just great for younger children but it is absolutely amazing for children and adults with special needs. Research also has shown that sound therapy helps with people who have:

Mood disorders

Depression

Anxiety

Amnesia

Schizophrenia

Alzheimer

Dementia

As I use YouTube a lot, I stumbled upon many videos for Sound Therapy. There was also one for a condition called Tinnitus. This is where there is a continuous noise in the ears such constant ringing, buzzing, etc. To overcome this condition, the following video was posted. It is a 6 hour video of the water from a shower hitting the wall. It is quite soothing for a person like me who doesn't have tinnitus so I hope it works wonders for people with tinnitus as well.

The sounds used in the above video are called natural sounds. The following are links to the natural sounds I have used at different times in the classroom. On a rainy day, I always used rain and thunderstorm videos as background noise. It helped the students relax and also helped scared students find love for the rain (as I have. I absolutely LOVE the rain). On super sunny days I have used ocean waves. These can work great with themes as well. For spring, you may use rain; summer, you may use ocean waves or water falls, etc.

Thunderstorm and Rain

Ocean Waves

Waterfall

Hot Springs

Nature and Forest (imagine putting up a tent in the classroom with this as background music!!! Fantastic!)

Birds

Dolphins and Whales

Underwater

Fire (one of my most favourite! Use this while students are reading or you are reading a story)

Wind

Here are some videos with soothing music. One of the them (1st one) is a video I showed my students a lot and they have fallen in love with it. The music plays a huge part of it! (Some started to refer to the video as the video with the meditation song!):

You can always search for specific videos on YouTube as of course these are not limited to the vast space for sound therapy.

The next links are sounds that have been created to help people with certain conditions (please note that these videos are not a cure and that they may not work for every single person out there):

Anxiety and Depression

Please be aware that some people are able to see sound and taste/hear colour. That is called synesthesia. One of my good friends has synesthesia and when she told me about it, I was amazed! Though she has said that there are times when the sound is too much and she sees colours everywhere. So, please make sure you are aware of students of other people who may react differently to sounds!

Sound therapy is definitely a science which has evolved since thousands of years. And listening to the healing sounds can definitely help a person overcome his illnesses which is specifically designed for that ailment and the troubled frequencies of the sick organ.